Apple apparently caved in to make them behave like in Windows, except that you still can use the menu bar until you change focus.

That behaviour has been in Mac OS X long before OS X 10.8 Mountain Lion, Mac OS X 10.7 Lion, Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard, Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, since it is part of how Mac OS X behaves. If an application only has one window and no multiple windows can be opened anyway from it, like Disk Utility or System Preferences, closing that one window does close the application.

If one wants to not close such single-window application, one could press CMD+H to make that window not visible for the tie being or use more Desktops (formerly known as Spaces).

I see. Well, have you tried using the hide command (cmd + H)? I find it very useful when I want an app to keep running but not taking up screen space. To unhide an app I simply select it from the dock or from the application switcher (cmd + tab).

I see. Well, have you tried using the hide command (cmd + H)? I find it very useful when I want an app to keep running but not taking up screen space. To unhide an app I simply select it from the dock or from the application switcher (cmd + tab).

Truth is; I'm just too used to the red-dot on the top left. And cmd-H requires I twist my hand on the keyboard.

I do appreciate all these work-around suggestions...

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